Waitf ul Watching 



D 

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.Teh 




JAMES L. FORD 




Class __!__ 

Book -^. 

(folpgliffiL 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



WAITFUL WATCHING 




'Suddenly poor Sammy realized that he had been led into 
a hornet's nest" — Page 4 



Waitful Watching 



Uncle Sam and the Fight 
in Dame Europtfs School 

By 

James L. Ford 

Author of "The Literary Shop," "The Great 
Mirage," "Bohemia Invaded," etc. 




Illustrated by Reginald Birch 



New York 

Frederick A. Stokes Company 

Publishers 



J^ 



Copyright, 1916, by 
Frederick A. Stokes Company 

Copyright, 1916, by 
The Vanity Fair Publishing Co., Inc. 



All rights reserved 





AUG 28 ! DIG 


©CI.A4373S6 





ILLUSTRATIONS 

"Suddenly poor Sammy realized that he had 

been led into a hornets' nest" Frontispiece v 

FACING 
PAGE 

"But, to his rage and amazement, little Al- 
bert valiantly opposed the bully's pas- 
sage" 22 

" 'When are you coming over to help us ?' " 44 

"Uncle Sam hurled his trusted dictionary 

into the troubled waters of the pond" 54 



WAITFUL WATCHING 



WAITFUL WATCHING 



Uncle Sam, as he is affectionately 
termed by the smaller lads who look to 
him for protection, is the biggest boy 
in Madame Columbia's Mercantile 
Academy and almost as large as the 
largest boy in Dame Europa's School. 
On a certain hot day in the early sum- 
mer of the present year of grace, 1916, 
he was led by a train of circumstances, 
which it is my purpose to narrate in due 
course, to enter the garden of a boy 
named Pedro, in order to chastise him 
for his hostile acts. Pedro's garden is 
large and uncultivated, abounding in 
jagged rocks and semi-tropical vegeta- 
tion. Its climate is hot and it is infested 
[ 3 ] 



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with poisonous reptiles and insects. In 
short, it is a place to be avoided during 
the heated term, and it was only the 
jeers of his schoolmates and the prick- 
ings of his own laggard conscience that 
induced Uncle Sam to undertake this 
disagreeable expedition. 

Very cautiously he advanced, picking 
his way through the rocky defiles and 
stepping gingerly, for he had a whole- 
some fear of snakes. He could see 
Pedro retreating before him, and from 
time to time the sound of hoarse gut- 
turals told him that his wily enemy was 
not alone. Suddenly poor Sammy 
heard the buzzing of angry insects, and 
realized that he had been led into a hor- 
net's nest. Relying on his great size, 
which was altogether out of proportion 
to his intelligence, he had neglected to 
[ 4 ] 



Waitful Watching 



prepare for the fight and the enraged 
hornets stung him through his thin 
clothing, while Pedro assailed him with 
a shower of missiles. The hoarse gut- 
tural voice was now raised in ironic 
laughter, and in the crafty dark face 
that leered at him through the shrub- 
bery, Sammy recognized one of Dame 
Asia's pupils who had long cherished 
a bitter grudge against him. 

How came Uncle Sam into this un- 
fortunate predicament? This is the 
story, now told in full for the first time. 



From the wide playground that 
stretched down to the shore of the pond 
that separated the school from the Se- 
lect Finishing Academy of Dame Eu- 
ropa on the eastern shore, Sammy had 
long gazed with feelings of admiration 
[ 5 ] 



Waitful Watching 



and envy at the pupils of the more aris- 
tocratic institution, affecting to despise 
them for their effeminacy, yet keenly 
envious of their personal distinction 
and savoir faire, of whose lack he was 
painfully, even morbidly, conscious. 
To the west of the playground was an- 
other pond and beyond this was Dame 
Asia's Oriental Academy of Learning, 
where the arts of dissimulation were 
taught in an incomparable manner. 
His nearest neighbor was a turbulent 
lad named Pedro, who had long been a 
thorn in his flesh and for whose con- 
duct, as well as for that of the smaller 
boys in his own school, Uncle Sam held 
himself responsible. 

Pedro, who had always defied and 
outwitted the truant officers, had more 
than once excited the wrath of Dame 
[ 6 ] 



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Europa, and only escaped pummeling 
by the intervention of Sammy, who 
would shake the Big Stick given him 
years before by a boy named Monroe, 
and declare that no one should cross the 
pond with punitive intent. 

Because of his great size, which was 
altogether out of proportion to his 
years, Sammy had firmly believed him- 
self to be the strongest boy in the whole 
schoolboy world. Self-willed, undis- 
ciplined, generous and kind hearted, 
and having the run of a playground so 
large and well-wooded that he could 
easily hide from his teachers, he spent 
more time in studying and imitating 
Dame Europa's lads, especially his 
elder brother, Johnny Bull, than he did 
over his books. The same teachers 
were employed in both schools, but 
[ 7 ] 



Waitful Watching 



Sammy paid but scant heed to their 
ministrations. He laughed at Miss 
Experience — the wisest of them all and 
the strictest disciplinarian as well — and 
turned a deaf ear to the words of Pro- 
fessor Efficiency and old Doctor Thor- 
oughness, utterly disregarding the fact 
that every one of those excellent peda- 
gogues was held in high esteem by the 
wise Dame Europa, whose system of 
education he admitted was superior to 
his own. 

Sam had many of the faults common 
to immature youth, one of which was a 
naive vanity that constantly sought 
new forms of expression. He never 
failed to exhibit his delight when any 
of the other boys flattered him, which 
they did in the grossest manner when- 
[ 8 ] 



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ever they wanted anything. And when 
even this insincere praise was not forth- 
coming, he patted himself on the back, 
an art in which practise had long since 
rendered him ambidextrous. He was 
very fond of poking his nose into the 
affairs of others — "reforming" them, 
he called it — and not infrequently as- 
sembled himself into a commission or 
committee for the purpose of reform- 
ing himself. 

There was one instructor, however, 
to whose precepts he listened only too 
readily, and that was General Bigbiz- 
ness, a charlatan whose breezy self-as- 
surance and loud talk had made such a 
deep impression on Madame Columbia, 
who was far less sophisticated than 
Dame Europa, that she engaged him 
[ 9 ] 



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exclusively for her school and adver- 
tised the fact widely in the hope of se- 
curing more pupils. 

With much shrewdness the General 
won the heart of his employer by tell- 
ing her that the course of instruction in 
her Mercantile Academy was vastly su- 
perior to that of Dame Europa, who 
paid much attention to the classic and 
modern languages as well as to music, 
literature and general cultivation. 
For such things, he declared, "the world 
has no use nowadays/' and he assured 
her that the boys who succeeded in life 
were those who devoted their entire at- 
tention to such practical matters as the 
making of various articles and selling 
them to the other boys. 

Barter and exchange of all kinds 
were encouraged in both schools as part 
[10] 



Waitful Watching 



of the preparation for the serious com- 
mercial transactions of later life, and 
the boys had a currency of their own in 
which their operations were carried on. 
By following the General's advice and 
devoting himself to trade, instead of to 
the development of his mind, Sammy 
managed to acquire a great deal of this 
currency and to keep himself supplied 
with candy, cake and expensive toys. 
Miss Experience, who knew the history 
of schools, teachers and schoolboys for 
many, many years, tried to warn him of 
the inevitable result of filling his pock- 
ets merely that he might play games 
and overload his stomach with un- 
wholesome sweets, but General Bigbiz- 
ness ridiculed her as a sour old maid 
whose advice was not worth consider- 
ing. 

[11] 



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"See how much better off you are 
since I came to the school!" said the old 
charlatan. "You've got more toys and 
better ones and more candy and cake 
and pie than any boy living. Before 
long you'll have every dollar of cur- 
rency there is in the land, and then any 
boy who needs spending money will 
have to borrow it of you. It's in antici- 
pation of that time that I've started my 
class in High Finance." 

The truth of these words was so ap- 
parent to Sammy that he did not at- 
tempt to deny them. That he was the 
richest lad in the whole schoolboy world 
he firmly believed, but that the treas- 
ures he was laying up were already ap- 
pealing to the cupidity of certain dis- 
honest lads never occurred to him. 

So Sam continued to study with dili- 
[12] 



Waitful Watching 



gence under his favorite teacher and the 
latter rewarded him with a prize in the 
shape of an unabridged dictionary, call- 
ing his attention to the great number 
and variety of the words that it con- 
tained and assuring him that they could 
be used as a means of settling disputes, 
thus saving much time and currency be- 
sides enabling him to avoid the personal 
encounters in which the other boys fre- 
quently indulged, to the ruin of their 
clothes and the alarming disfigurement 
of their features. 

Now, in Dame Europa's School, as 
well as in that of Madame Columbia, 
each pupil has a little garden in which 
to carry on some industry like manu- 
facturing or the growing of fruits and 
vegetables. Dame Europa's gardens 
are much smaller than those of her rival 
[13] 



Waitful Watching 



beyond the pond, and the question of 
their boundaries has caused many dis- 
putes and such bitter animosities that 
the wiser and stronger boys have more 
than once been obliged to interfere and 
settle matters with the strong hand of 
authority. And, as these stronger lads 
could not always agree among them- 
selves, two rival groups were formed, 
ostensibly for the protection of the 
smaller lads and the preservation of the 
established boundaries, but in reality 
with a furtive eye to the acquisition of 
more land. Each of these two groups 
kept a watchful and anxious eye on cer- 
tain hot-headed, pugnacious little lads 
who were always ready to fight at the 
drop of a hat. One of these turbulent 
spirits was little Peter, and it was on 
the boundary line between his garden 
[14] 



Waitful Watching 



and that of the haughty Franz Josef 
that the great fight, into which nearly 
all of the other pupils were subse- 
quently drawn, had its inception. 

Because of a deadly affront, for 
which Peter disclaimed all responsibil- 
ity, his arrogant neighbor demanded 
such abject apology and exorbitant 
reparation that the little fellow de- 
clared he would fight first. He had al- 
ready been assured of the aid of his big 
cousin, Nicholas, whose garden, the 
largest in all the school, was contiguous 
to that of Franz Josef. 

Nicholas was self-willed, rough in 
manner, strong in arm and brave in 
battle, and now when he planted him- 
self on the edge of his garden and 
warned Franz Josef to be careful how 
he attacked his small neighbor, all the 
[15] 



Waitful Watching 



boys realized that the great fight, for 
which, to tell the truth, so many of them 
had been spoiling, had broken out at 
last. Nor were they surprised when 
Junker Hans, a strong, sturdy lad, 
who had been cunningly egging Franz 
Josef on, told Nicholas that he must 
keep his hands off his next door neigh- 
bor and let Peter take the pummeling 
he so richly deserved. But Nicholas 
scorned to take orders from any one; 
moreover every member of the group 
to which he belonged was bound to 
come to the help of one who was at- 
tacked. 

Now while Dame Europa's pupils 
were, for the most part, scions of aristo- 
cratic families, Junker Hans was of the 
humblest peasant birth. Fully aware 
of his faults and limitations, he had con- 
[16] 



Wait jul Wat citing 



stantly sought to improve himself, and 
had not only been a diligent student, 
but had also kept himself in the best 
physical condition, for, in his secret 
heart, he aspired to be not only the cock 
of his own school but also that of every 
other like institution in the land. His 
teachers, especially Miss Experience 
and Professor Efficiency, spoke in the 
highest terms of his industry and wil- 
lingness to submit to wholesome disci- 
pline, and predicted for him a brilliant 
future. Under their instruction this 
young peasant lad had acquired the 
thinking habit and had invented many 
articles which he sold to the other boys 
to defray the cost of his own education. 
In this work, he compelled certain 
smaller boys who were his allies, but 
whom he treated rather as his slaves, to 
[17] 



Waitful Watching 



give him their services, and thus it came 
to pass that his trade became too large 
for his little domain and he was casting 
an envious eye on the gardens of his 
neighbors. 

In fact, his gaze had wandered long 
ago across the pond and lingered 
covetously on the rich lands of Pedro 
and Uncle Sam and the huge treasure 
house of currency acquired by the latter 
in the course of trade. All unknown 
to either lad, Hans had laid his plans 
for appropriating everything to him- 
self. Unscrupulous in his methods 
and well versed in the arts of dissimula- 
tion, he had cultivated friendly rela- 
tions with the simple-minded Sammy, 
by a course of flattery and cajolery that 
concealed his real purpose, while at the 
same time he had cunningly incited 
[18] 



Wait jul Watching 



Pedro to wanton acts of hostility 
against his neighbor, in order that the 
latter's attention might be turned in 
that direction. 

In years past Hans had not scrupled 
to administer a sound beating to Fran- 
ces Gallia, the prettiest and most co- 
quettish pupil in the good Dame's co- 
educational establishment, and Frances 
still cherished hopes of revenge. It 
was this fight 1 — so short, sharp and 
decisive that it was finished before the 
other boys fairly realized that it had 
begun — that made Junker Hans cock 
of the walk, and it was in that capacity 
that he now stepped bravely up to 
Nicholas and threatened him with his 
mailed fist. Then, as it seemed to his 

i An account of this fight was written by the late 
Richard Grant White under the title, "The Fight in 
Dame Europa's School." 

[19] 



Wait Jul Watching 



suspicious mind that Frances Gallia 
was making faces at him over her gar- 
den wall, he determined to attack her 
before she should have a chance to pitch 
into him, so he summoned his smaller 
vassals, whom he had long since drilled 
into a firm belief in his own omnipo- 
tence and in the virtue of implicit obedi- 
ence to his will, and with these under 
his command attacked Frances and 
Nicholas simultaneously. 

Between the large garden of Junker 
Hans and the far more beautiful do- 
main of Frances lay the small plot oc- 
cupied by a little chap named Albert, 
and cultivated by him with a skill that 
commanded the envy and admiration 
of the whole school. Indeed, so stead- 
ily had Albert devoted himself to the 

t'ao] 



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care of his few acres and to their taste- 
ful adornment that he had never been 
regarded as a fighter, and so Hans now 
gruffly commanded him to step aside 
that he might walk across his land and 
punish Frances for her malicious dis- 
tortions of visage. That was the trivial 
reason that he gave for his unwarranted 
attack on a fellow pupil who had done 
him no harm, his real reason being his 
wish to acquire some of Frances Gal- 
lia's garden, which she had adorned by 
the exercise of an artistic taste that 
was all her own and in which she had no 
rival among Dame Europa's pupils. 
Hans was specially covetous of a small 
strip that bordered on the big pond, be- 
lieving that its possession would make 
him a more formidable power than ever 
[21] 



Wait Jul Watching 



in the great schoolboy world and per- 
haps facilitate his plan to cross the wide 
water and rob Pedro and Sammy. 

It was with this acquisitive purpose 
in mind that he shouted to young Al- 
bert, and roughly bade him stand aside, 
not doubting that he would obey. But, 
to his rage and amazement, the little 
boy quickly armed himself with such 
weapons as were nearest at hand and 
valiantly opposed the bully's passage, 
at the same time calling to the other 
lads for aid. Johnny Bull heard his 
cry and warned the angry peasant lad 
to desist, reminding him that they had 
both long since signed a paper guaran- 
teeing Albert from intrusion. 

But Hans had never learned to speak 
or even to respect the truth, as had the 
better bred boys in the school, and he 
[22] 




But, to his rage and amazement, little Albert valiantly 
opposed the bully's passage" — Page 22 



Wait jul Watching 



was indignant with Johnny for consid- 
ering a mere scrap of paper an obstacle 
to anybody's ambition. So he fell 
upon his small neighbor with his brass 
knuckled fists and forthwith there en- 
sued a fight that will never be forgotten 
by the pupils of Dame Europa's School. 
Never in the history of that institution 
had a boy of Albert's diminutive size 
been so cruelly beaten by a bully ; never 
had the School witnessed a more gallant 
resistance against overwhelming odds. 
The contest was so fierce and the shout- 
ing of the combatants so loud that boys 
for miles around gathered to watch the 
fray. Albert fought until he could 
fight no longer and his aggressor, after 
stamping on the boy's prostrate body 
and kicking him until the other lads 
cried "Shame!" passed on through his 
[23] 



Waitful Watching 



garden and entered that of the beauti- 
ful Frances. But the brave little Al- 
bert had not suffered in vain, for, while 
he was staying the march of the in- 
vader, his neighbor had had time to pre- 
pare her defenses and Johnny Bull 
to sound the tocsin summoning his 
younger allies to his side. 

Now Johnny Bull's garden was an 
island, separated by a wide creek from 
that of Frances, and adjacent to it were 
the gardens of Scotty and Pat, two of 
his most trusty allies. Johnny had 
been in his day the acknowledged cock 
of the School and as such had fre- 
quently enriched himself at the expense 
of his fellows, who, largely speaking, 
had no love for him, and openly ridi- 
culed his pretentions and his bullying 
manner. At the breaking out of the 
[24] 



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fight, there was but one boy in the 
School who believed Johnny to be all 
that he had boasted, and that was 
Johnny himself. In schoolboy slang, 
the rest had been "on to him" for some 
time, and none knew him as thoroughly 
as did Junker Hans, who had studied 
him closely for several terms. 

In Johnny Bull, as in all boys, both 
good and evil traits were blended. 
Among his worst faults were his Phari- 
saical pretense of a virtue superior to 
that of his fellows, and a conceit which 
took the form of a supreme confidence 
in his own robust powers and his inabil- 
ity to go wrong. Because of this con- 
ceit, Dame Europa's excellent corps of 
teachers had found it difficult to impart 
any instruction to his sluggish brain. 
Miss Experience had long regarded 
[25] 



Wait jul Watching 



him as hopeless, though she had on sev- 
eral occasions stood him up in a corner 
with a dunce cap on his head as a warn- 
ing to the others. He had worn this 
cap years before after two squabbles 
with his own younger brother across the 
pond; again when he had burnt his 
fingers while pulling a bit of Turkish 
paste off the fire for Frances to eat; 
again when Hans had cunningly per- 
suaded him to keep his hands off while 
he thrashed the same Frances, and 
again when he had gone forth — against 
the dictates of his better self — to beat a 
small but courageous boy in Dame 
Ethiopia's far distant school. His 
prestige as a fighter rested largely on 
his victory over an audacious boy 
named Boney who, many years before, 
had appropriated to himself the gar- 
[26] 



Wait ful Watching 



dens of many of the other pupils and 
become so strong that Dame Europa 
commanded the others to make com- 
mon cause against him. In this fight, 
which was not ended until Boney had 
been driven from the School, Johnny 
had shown himself a boy of courage and 
prowess, which is all the more to his 
credit when we remember that he stood 
in such deathly awe of Boney that he 
could hardly sleep at night. It was 
Johnny who administered the coup de 
grace, after which he had returned in 
triumph to his own garden and reared 
several monuments to himself. As 
time went on he forgot the aid that he 
had received from Alec, the previous 
occupant of Nicholas' garden, and from 
Hans, then a small lad, who had arrived 
on the field of action in the nick of time 
[27] 



Wait Jul Watching 



and delivered two or three body blows 
to the common foe. 

All this he forgot, and actually be- 
lieved that he had thrashed Boney 
single-handed, after the manner de- 
scribed on the many monuments 
erected by his own hand to his own 
glory. Constantly reminded of his 
own prowess by these monuments, 
Johnny had long since relaxed in physi- 
cal training, though he still traded jack 
knives with his fellow pupils without 
giving evidence of failing mental pow- 
ers. He grew slothful and gluttonous, 
and, by indulging his appetite for 
candy, pastry and other unwholesome 
sweets, acquired a huge paunch, while 
his arms and legs grew proportionately 
weak. Of all this Junker Hans was 
well aware, for, thanks to Dr. Thor- 
ns ] 



Wait jul Watching 



oughness, he had learned the value of 
rightly estimating not only his own 
strength but that of a possible enemy 
as well. 

But Johnny had many good traits, 
among which were courage in the final 
extremity, a love of justice, and a suffi- 
cient respect for the truth to regard his 
own signature as a sacred thing. He 
could not accept Junker Hans' plea 
that a solemn covenant was a mere 
scrap of paper to be torn up and 
thrown away at the signatory's con- 
venience, and it was this belief, blended 
with a fear that Hans would despatch 
Albert and Frances and then cross the 
ditch and attack him that caused 
Johnny to come to the little fellow's aid. 
At the same time he shouted across the 
pond to Uncle Sam: "Aren't you com- 
[29] 



Waitful Watching 



ing into this fight? You ought at least 
to make a kick against the way Junker 
Hans is pitching into little Albert!" 

Sammy seized his dictionary, hastily 
scanned its pages and then shouted in 
reply: "I'm too proud to fight." 

Just then Pedro assailed him with a 
shower of sharp pebbles, in dodging 
which and in listening to the advice of 
General Bigbizness, Sam's attention 
was quickly diverted. The General 
urged him to devote himself to the mak- 
ing and selling of sticks, arrows, sling 
shots and other articles necessary to the 
carrying on of the big fight, remarking 
in his shrewd way that the misfortune 
of one boy was the opportunity of an- 
other. 

So Uncle Sam shook his fist at his 
unruly neighbor and shouted: "You'd 
[30] 



Wait jul Watching 



better look out! I'm going to watch 
and wait if you don't behave yourself!" 
Having uttered these words of sol- 
emn portent, he turned to the making 
of slings, bows and arrows, in which 
trade Hans had in times past shown 
great energy and skill and had never 
scrupled to supply, to his own profit, 
both sides of a dispute. Well versed in 
the convenient art of forgetfulness he 
now shook his fist angrily at Samuel 
and warned him not to furnish his, 
Hans', enemies with weapons. At the 
same time one or two of Sam's small 
fellow pupils reminded their protector 
that it might be well to keep some of 
the hand-slings, sticks and stones for 
use against Pedro, and to construct 
some flying machines for their own use. 
To this voice of prudence as well as to 
[31] 



Wait Jul Watching 



the protesting Hans, Sam merely said: 
"We must watch and wait," and went 
on with his making and selling, serene 
in the approval of General Bigbizness. 

Thereupon Hans seized his new blow 
gun, an invention of his own, and 
rained half a dozen pebbles on the 
cheeks of the boy across the pond, caus- 
ing him to utter a cry of angry pain, 
while the other lads stood gazing in 
astonishment and wondering what 
would happen. Nor did their wonder 
cease when Sammy extracted from his 
dictionary the words "strict account- 
ability" and hurled them angrily at his 
tormentor. 

Now Hans, like Uncle Sam, had 

long been a persistent noser into the 

affairs of the other boys, but unlike the 

big overgrown lad, he had not nosed 

[32] 



Waitful Watching 



with the foolish idea of doing good, but 
for selfish purposes of his own. As the 
truth was not in him, he had developed 
a genius for this sinister work and in his 
school desk were stored away complete 
and accurate lists of the various weap- 
ons of defense kept by the different 
boys in reserve for emergencies. He 
had also taken pains to acquaint him- 
self with the physical, moral and mental 
qualities of each of his young compan- 
ions and the manner in which they 
kept themselves in training; and thus 
he had learned of Johnny Bull's condi- 
tion, due to his gluttony and idleness. 
And all this time he had been prepar- 
ing for the big fight by secretly making 
and storing up sticks, stones, bows, ar- 
rows and slings, together with bandages 
and healing liniments. His flying ma- 
[33] 



Waitful Watching 



chines were the best in all the land and 
he had secretly perfected a boat that 
could travel a great distance under the 
water. Both of these contrivances he 
used for the purpose of injuring and 
terrorizing his opponents. 

Johnny Bull had no sooner put up 
his fists than he found that his arms 
were enfeebled and his knees shaken 
through a long course of devotion to his 
own over-fed stomach, and that a con- 
stant and exuberant contemplation of 
his own virtues, as recorded on his vari- 
ous monuments, had rendered his brain 
so sluggish that it required several 
blows from Hans' well aimed missiles 
to bring him to a realizing sense of the 
vast difference between what he really 
was and what he had imagined himself. 

Reeling back from the encounter and 
[34] 



Wait jul Watching 



holding a handkerchief to his bloody 
nose, he called loudly to his smaller al- 
lies, bidding them come to the aid of 
him whom he had taught them to re- 
gard as their natural protector. These 
responded quickly and bravely, for in 
Dame Europa's School the first duty 
of the protected is to protect the pro- 
tector. And, in an incredibly short 
space of time, hard-fisted, bare-legged 
Scotty and pugnacious, red-headed Pat 
had ranged themselves beside him, 
while from far across the pond his 
smaller brothers embarked in their ca- 
noes to join the fray. 

Meanwhile, the smaller pupils re- 
tired behind barricades made of a 
malleable clay called "strict neutral- 
ity," where both sides found it advisable 
to allow them to remain. Those in the 
[35] 



Wait jul Watching 



immediate neighborhood of Peter were 
soon heard snarling among themselves 
and eventually nearly all of them were 
drawn into the quarrel, as was Italia, a 
blood relation of Frances Gallia, and, 
like her, a girl of great beauty and 
spirit. 

As for Sam, he applied a little 
Pond's Extract to his bruised face and 
drew from his dictionary a fine assort- 
ment of sonorous words, few of which 
contained less than three syllables. 
These he hurled across the pond at 
Hans, exclaiming triumphantly: "That 
will teach you not to shoot pebbles at 
me!" Then turning a scowling face 
toward Pedro, he added: "This goes 
for you, too !" 

The looks of wonder on the faces of 
the combatants broadened into con- 
[36] 



Wait Jul Wat citing 



temptuous smiles. "What else are you 
going to do?" roared Johnny Bull. 
"Watch and wait?" "No," rejoined 
the other, "I have decided to wait and 
watch, for to fight I am too proud! 
Besides I must finish these orders for 
my customers." 

But Sammy did much more than this. 
Easily moved by the misfortunes of 
others, he wept when he saw the griev- 
ous wounds that the fighters inflicted on 
one another, and, with a generosity and 
unselfishness characteristic of his simple 
nature, he sought to alleviate their suf- 
ferings. He paddled across the pond 
with great bottles of healing salves and 
rolls of bandages, and with his own 
hands bound up the wounds, thereby 
gaining but little gratitude and even 
less respect. 

[37] 



Waitful Watching 



In the old days of peace, Sam, who 
prided himself rather unduly on his 
keen sense of humor, had been wont to 
amuse himself by drawing pictures on 
his slate representing Hans as a tow- 
headed clown with wooden shoes and a 
foolish cast of countenance, trying to 
build a flying machine or — still more 
ridiculous — a boat to go under the 
water. He had laughed heartily at his 
own exquisite wit, and the other boys 
had shared his mirth, for nothing ap- 
peals to the humorous perception of a 
schoolboy as does the humiliation of an- 
other. It was Hans ? turn now and his 
strident laughter echoed across the 
pond as he upset Sam's canoes and pep- 
pered him with his popgun. And all 
the louder did he laugh when the other 
replied with volleys from his dictionary. 
[38] 



Wait jul Watching 



But Sam did not laugh, for the popgun 
hurt and the words did not. Even 
Hans' enemies paused in their righting 
and swelled the chorus of laughter at 
the comical spectacle of the once boast- 
ful Sammy, the bully of his own school, 
protecting his face with his hands and 
roaring out that if the other did not 
stop, he would watch and wait until 
he did. 

"You must stop making those slings 
and arrows!" yelled Junker Hans from 
across the water. "You ought to be 
fair to both sides, but instead of that 
you're selling things to Johnny Bull." 

"Well, I am fair to both sides," re- 
plied Sammy; "I'm ready to make 
things for you, too, if you'll only give 
me the order." 

"But I can't get them if you do make 
[39] 



Waitful Watching 



them!" cried the other. "My canoes 
are all up Salt River Creek, and 
Johnny Bull won't let them come out! 
If it wasn't for you. this fight would 
have been over long ago." 

To which the other made answer in 
one of his rare bursts of intelligence: 
"Yes, and then you'd be ready to come 
over here and lick me." 

What Hans said about his canoes 
was perfectly true. Like all island- 
dwellers Johnny Bull had been ad- 
dicted to water sports since early child- 
hood. He could swim and dive like a 
duck and paddle a canoe or manage a 
sailboat better than any other lad in 
all the schoolboy world. For years he 
had spent a large share of his liberal al- 
lowance of pocket money on craft of 
all kinds, and therefore the beginning 
[40] 



Wait jul Watching 



of the fight found him with a fine fleet 
of boats, well equipped for racing and 
for fighting as well. No sooner had the 
fight begun than he despatched these 
boats and canoes, manned by his smaller 
allies, to the mouth of Salt River Creek, 
in which estuary he effectually bottled 
up the fleet of Junker Hans. 

Now there was no boy in all the land 
who had watched the progress of the 
fight with as keen an interest or a 
deeper comprehension of what it really 
signified than little Fugi Yama, the 
brightest pupil in Dame Asia's Ori- 
ental Academy of Learning. Fugi 
was not popular with the other boys for 
the excellent reason that he was clev- 
erer and better mannered than the rest, 
more cleanly and abstemious in his 
habits and more tasteful in his dress, 
[41] 



Waitful Watching 



Because of these traits — unforgivable 
in the schoolboy world — he was usually 
termed a barbarian. Fugi had long 
cherished a righteous grudge against 
Junker Hans, and now, seeing him en- 
gaged with his enemies, he seized cer- 
tain small gardens illegally held by 
Hans and made them his own. He 
cherished an equally righteous and still 
more bitter grudge against Uncle Sam, 
of which the latter was uneasily con- 
scious, but now too busy to pay much 
heed to matters of such remote contin- 
gency, for he had undertaken to supply 
Johnny Bull and his friends with such 
a quantity of blow guns, slings, clubs 
and missiles that he was obliged to put 
all the smaller boys to work and to con- 
struct several new wooden sheds in 
which to carry on their labor. Feeling 
[42] 



Wait Jul Watching 



himself immune from outside attack, he 
had, like Johnny Bull, neglected his 
physical and moral welfare and in con- 
sequence thereof, the malignant germ 
of cowardice had flourished in his sys- 
tem and was fast undermining his 
character. He tried to deceive himself 
and his playmates as to the real nature 
of these germs by culling from his dic- 
tionary the misleading word Pacifism 
and applying it to them like a healing 
plaster, and, having thus blinded his 
own eyes to this ulcer on his moral na- 
ture, he thought that he had hidden it 
from the others as well. 

But Hans, who had already recog- 
nized this Pacifism for what it really 
was, slyly let loose in Madame Colum- 
bia's School a deadly microbe called 
BurnstufT, which had the quality pe- 
[43] 



Wailful Watching 



culiar to itself of producing sleeping 
sickness whenever it came in contact 
with the germs of Pacifism. 

Long before this the crafty Hans 
had inoculated the simple Sammy with 
an even more malignant germ called 
the Hyphen, and this, when joined to 
the Burnstuff microbe, brought on a 
sharp explosion, followed by devastat- 
ing flames. Now these germs and the 
microbe produced a succession of con- 
flagrations in Uncle Sam's wooden 
sheds and also in various skiffs and ca- 
noes, laden with weapons, which were 
destroyed as they lay along the shore. 
While Uncle Sam was searching in his 
dictionary for a word that would con- 
ceal the nature of the Hyphen germs 
he was startled by a loud wail of an- 
guish from Johnny Bull, who had been 
[44] 




When are you coming over to help us?' " — Page £5 



Wait jul Watching 



ejected by Hans from the territory of 
one of the latter's allies and severely 
kicked in the process. 

"When are you coming over to help 
us?" bawled Johnny, standing on the 
shore of his island and holding both 
hands on the seat of his injuries. 

Now Uncle Sam had just burned his 
own hands and singed his hair and eye- 
brows while putting out the fires 
caused by the Burns tuff microbe, and 
he was in no mood to utter a concili- 
atory reply, and too keenly on the 
watch for other explosions to select a 
suitable phrase from his dictionary. 

"Haven't you got help enough?" he 
roared. "You've got Pat and Scotty 
and all the other boys and girls who are 
on your side! And if I do go into the 
quarrel — which is not my quarrel after 
[45] 



Waitful Watching 



all — I shan't be able to finish that great 
lot of slings and blow-guns I'm making 
for you. I'll have to keep them for my 
own use!" 

"But I'm your elder brother!" wailed 
Johnny. "Haven't I always let you 
play my games and copy my clothes? 
Haven't you always copied my man- 
ners instead of becoming absurdly pol- 
ished like Frances Gallia? Do you 
want to see your own brother beaten to 
a pulp? I tell you to come over here 
and help me!" 

"I am helping you the best I know 
how," retorted Sammy. "If it wasn't 
for me, you and your crowd wouldn't 
have anything to fight with. And just 
look at all the bandages and liniments 
I've given you for nothing just because 
I didn't want to see you bleed to death ! 
[46] 



Wait Jul Watching 



That's more than you ever did for me 
when I had that trouble with some of 
my smaller boys a few terms ago. Did 
you come over and help me then? Not 
a bit of it. On the contrary, you did 
everything you could to make the 
trouble worse. Now you can take care 
of yourself! I've got all I can do, 
putting out fires!" 

But Sam had much to occupy his 
mind beside merely putting out fires, 
for some of Madame Columbia's smaller 
pupils who looked to him for protec- 
tion, had awakened to the growing need 
of weapons and missiles with which to 
resist any possible attack from an 
enemy and their clamoring now became 
so persistent that their protector was 
again driven to his dictionary. A mo- 
ment later he was shouting "Prepared- 
[47] 



Wait Jul Watching 



ness!" with so much vehemence that it 
looked as if he were actually going to 
do something. But, even while he was 
yelling his loudest, he continued to fill 
orders for his customers to the neglect 
of his own need, while Miss Experience 
wept at sight of his folly. 

All in vain did this excellent creature 
point to Johnny Bull, now struggling 
valiantly to atone for the neglect of her 
precepts, and to the superb spectacle 
presented by Frances Gallia, who, hav- 
ing had the sense to profit by them, was 
defending herself from the ruthless at- 
tack of Junker Hans with a courage 
that compelled the admiration of the 
entire schoolboy world. Frances did 
not, like Johnny Bull, call upon Sam 
for aid, though she was justly entitled 
to it because of assistance that she had 
[48] 



Wait Jul Watching 



rendered to. him when he was a very 
small boy. Professor Efficiency and 
Doctor Thoroughness added their 
warnings to that of Miss Experience 
by calling attention to the manner in 
which Hans had prepared himself for 
the fight while the rest of Dame Eu- 
ropa's pupils were amusing themselves 
on the playground and Sam was filling 
his pockets with the school currency. 

Then suddenly the Burnstuff mi- 
crobe, acting in concert with the Hy- 
phen germ, entered into Pedro's system 
and caused such an outburst of rage, ac- 
companied by fierce volleys of stones di- 
rected against Uncle Sam, that he was 
reluctantly compelled to put up his fists 
in self-defense and even to cross the 
boundary into the other's garden in or- 
der to administer condign punishment. 
[49] 



Waitful Watching 



Here he soon found himself in a hor- 
net's nest, with adders hissing about his 
feet, the sound of guttural laughter 
ringing in his ears, and Fugi Yama 
grinning at him from the shrubbery, 
precisely as it is set down in one of the 
early pages of this veracious history. 

It was at this moment that he realized 
that his dictionary, practically the only 
weapon that he had at hand, was ridicu- 
lously inadequate as a means of punish- 
ing such a pugnacious boy as little 
Pedro, and the suspicion that his im- 
plicit confidence in General Bigbizness 
had led him to the very brink of serious 
disaster, entered his mind and caused 
him many hours of uneasiness. 

One by one the difficulties of his posi- 
tion loomed up before him, completely 
driving from his brain the sense of se- 
[50] 



Wait jul Watching 



curity on which he had relied. He saw 
now that not only was Fugi Yama 
watching him with furtive, malevolent 
eye, but that Johnny Bull as well as 
Hans and Franz Josef entertained in- 
imical feelings toward him. If Dame 
Europa's boys could make flying ma- 
chines powerful enough to cross from 
one garden to another, how soon would 
they build one strong enough to cross 
the big pond? Miss Experience, to 
whom he was now willing to turn one 
reluctant ear, recited pages of school 
history showing that in times past even 
the most embittered enemies had been 
known to patch up their quarrels in 
order to make common cause against 
some weaker boy, and now Uncle Sam 
suspected that he himself was the weak- 
est boy in the whole school world, in- 
[51] 



Wait Jul Wat citing 



stead of the strongest as he had once be- 
lieved. Meanwhile the Hyphen germ 
was spreading through his garden and 
the Burnstuff microbe was doing its 
deadly work of arson. In payment for 
what he was supplying to his customers, 
he had accepted notes signed by them 
and endorsed by General Bigbizness, 
who was always ready to promise any- 
thing. He had accounted these notes 
as cash at a trifle less than their face 
value, but now it occurred to him that 
the signers might find themselves un- 
willing or unable to pay and that the 
breezy General might prove but a weak 
financial reed to lean upon. 

Carrying his dictionary under his 
arm, Sammy picked his way back to 
the shore of the pond and stood gaz- 
ing at the great fight that was raging 
[52] 



Wait jul Watching 



with unabated fierceness. For the first 
time since it began, a sense of his own 
complete isolation and loneliness took 
possession of his soul. Johnny Bull, 
who by this time had gotten his second 
wind, was using his fists as well as the 
weapons that Sammy had sold him on 
long credit with a courage and deter- 
mination worthy of the very best there 
was in him. Somehow, his former in- 
vitation to Sammy to join the fray did 
not seem as absurd and selfish now as 
then. Frances Gallia and her cousin 
Italia were fighting splendidly, too, 
and on the other side of the field Nicho- 
las was hammering away at both Franz 
Josef and Junker Hans with telling 
effect. If his young companions had 
sent him to Coventry and refused to 
allow him to take part in their games 
[53] 



Waitful Watching 



poor Sammy could not have felt more 
completely out of everything than he 
did now. 

He realized, too, with increasing 
wretchedness of spirit and self-con- 
tempt that in refusing to come to 
Johnny's aid he had missed the great- 
est opportunity that had offered itself 
since he first entered the school — the 
double opportunity to do what he had 
known all along was right and to make 
powerful friends at the same time. 
After all, Johnny was his own elder 
brother and the claims of blood kinship 
should have been strong enough to wipe 
out all unpleasant memories. By fre- 
quent insults and the upsetting of his 
canoes, to say nothing of letting loose 
the deadly Burnstuff microbe in his gar- 
den, Junker Hans had given him good 
[54] 




Uncle Sam hurled his trusted dictionary into the troubled 
waters of the pond" — Page 55 



Wait Jul Watching 



and sufficient reason for entering the 
fray on his own account and now he 
felt that if he had done his share, 
Johnny, Frances, Fugi Yama and the 
rest would have recognized him as a 
member of their powerful group and 
entitled to their aid in any trouble that 
the future might hold for him. Now 
he realized with feelings of bitterness 
that he was an object of hatred and 
contempt. At this moment one of 
Madame Columbia's smaller pupils, 
whose soul had been corroded by the 
Pacifism germs, peered furtively into 
the dictionary and extracted the phrase : 
"Well, he's kept us out of a fight, any- 
way." 

In a sudden outburst of rage and de- 
spair, illumined by gleams of returning 
intelligence, Uncle Sam hurled his 
[55] 



Wailful Watching 



trusted dictionary into the troubled 
waters of the pond, convinced that now 
indeed was he naked to his enemies. 



THE END 



[56] 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




